Will an athlon X3 435 bottleneck a radeon 5850?

[toastygoast]

I have been looking into building a new gaming PC, however, I'm on a pretty tight, budget. I was wondering if an Athlon X3 435 CPU end up bottlenecking a powerful Radeon 5850 GPU.

Would it be worth getting a better CPU and a worse GPU?

 

[saaiello]

I think it will bottleneck that GPU tou can try overclocking it if you get a decent mother board. But I dont know how good those overclock. You would be better off getting the Phenom II x3 720BE it will overclock easier and you have a good chance of unlocking its 4th core. So for $25 you will be getting a better faster easily overclockable processor not to mention it has a really great chance of being unlocked into an x4.


AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Heka 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W 104.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103652


Check out this benchmark shows the Phenom II has a nice advantage over the athlon in gameing at stock speeds and when its overclocked and unlocked its in a whole new league. Main performance gains is due to its 6MB of L3 cache.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=112&p2=83&c=1

 

[saaiello]

the x3 435 OC great, I can attest to that. For the price of a Phenom II X3 720 720, I got one and a nice rosewill cooler to OC it.

"Here's where it all comes together. Look at the Athlon II X3 435 versus the Phenom II X3 720. For three-quarters of the price, the Athlon II X3 435 offers identical encoding ability, less than a three percent disadvantage in gaming, and less than a five percent disadvantage in productivity metrics."

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-ii-x3,2452-13.html

You make great points if it wasnt for the fact that he is obviously gonna be useing this for a gameing rig with a 5850. The phenomII 720 offers easier overclocking with unlocked multi, also a good chance it can be unlocked into an x4. With a 5850 as his GPU hes gonna need all the processing power he can get to keep up with it. If he can afford the extra $25 it will be an all around better processor for gaming and my guess with a 5850 its a gaming rig.

 

[Fromtheashes]

You make great points but The phenomII 720 offers easier overclocking with unlocked multi, also a good chance it can be unlocked into an x4. With a 5850 as his GPU hes gonna need all the processing power he can get to keep up with it. If he can afford the extra $25 it will be an all around better processor for gaming and my guess with a 5850 its a gaming rig.

I currently use that setup, my 720BE is at 3.6Ghz clock 2.6GHCPUNB, and my 5850 is at 930Mhz clock 1250Mhz memory. This setup is amazing for a budget gaming rig.

 

[saaiello]

I currently use that setup, my 720BE is at 3.6Ghz clock 2.6GHCPUNB, and my 5850 is at 930Mhz clock 1250Mhz memory. This setup is amazing for a budget gaming rig.

CT1615 knows this too but he just wants to go against me .

 

[saaiello]

 

[toastygoast]

Thanks everyone!

I've decided that I can afford the Phenom X2 555. Hopefully I'll be able to unlock the other two cores....